Not My Night
by Deadly Poppy
Summary: She hadn’t intended to, honestly. It’s just that, when he saw him and Remus and Sirius in the corner, he wondered. That small wonder turned into immense curiosity, and the curiosity turned into a plan. A plan to make James Potter jealous. Read and Review!
1. I Have An Idea

**Wow. I was writing this as a one-shot, but it got so freaking long that I had to split it into chapters! Pleaspleasepleaseplease review!**

*********

"I'll kill you," James said, walking up to Remus and Sirius, his voice low and deadly. "I will rip your spleen out through your eye socket. Then I will-"

"Prongs!" Sirius interrupted what was sure to be a very macabre description of exactly how angry James was. "I'm sure Moony has a very good explanation. Moony?"

"Well…uh…she asked me, and I didn't want to hurt her feelings?" he said, hoping this was an acceptable answer.

"I'll kill you!" James said louder, lunging at Remus, who ducked.

"James, be rational-"

"I love her!" he said. "How can you go to the ball with her!?"

"As friends!" Remus cried. "Only as friends, she said! It's tomorrow, and neither of us have dates! I knew you'd already asked twice, and so there was no way she'd go with you, so when she asked if I wanted to go _as friends_, I said alright!"

James sighed. "Okay," he said.

Then Sirius grinned. "I have an idea," he said slowly.

*********

Remus hated lying to his best friend.

Of course, he was only half lying. Not even half, he was _a quarter _lying. That had to count for something, right?

Maybe, but did it really matter?

No. All that mattered was that a part of him was lying to James.

You see, Remus wasn't lying when he said Lily asked him. That was true. He also wasn't lying when he said that Lily wanted to go as friends. She had used those exact words. But, however much he hated to admit it, _he_ didn't want to go as friends.

Bugger.

He knew he didn't love her like James did. He knew that no one could love Lily like James did. But he also knew that going to the ball with Lily wouldn't be good for the crush he had on her that he was trying to starve.

But how could he have said no?

Bugger.

This could only end badly.

Especially if Sirius intended to put his "plan" into action.

*********

Lily was feeling immensely guilty for what she had done.

She knew she shouldn't have done it. She knew it was a bad idea. She knew there would be consequences.

And she had done it anyway. And it was too late now.

You see, for the past several years, James Potter asked Lily out on a regular basis. She always declined. He was arrogant, pigheaded, and a jerk. But this year, seventh year, they were both heads. He had been nice to her. He had been kind to the first years and he hadn't hexed Severus once.

She was beginning to like him.

So what had she done? Declined every offer she'd been given to go to the ball, in the hopes that he would ask her.

He hadn't, so she'd resorted to drastic measures.

She hadn't intended to, honestly. It's just that, when he saw him and Remus and Sirius in the corner, he wondered.

That small wonder turned into immense curiosity, and the curiosity turned into a plan.

A plan to make James Potter jealous.

But she had never intended to act on it…

She hadn't!

…Only, when she heard that James was going to the ball with Mary Thompson, she had acted impulsively.

She had marched up to Remus and asked him to go with her.

And now she was feeling immensely guilty.

But what could she do?

So she started to get dressed, and hoped for the best.


	2. I'm Going Stag

James honestly tried not to look at Lily as she came down the stairs with the other girls into the Gryffindor common room.

He tried, but he failed. His eyes landed on her, wearing a strapless dark blue dress that came all the way to the floor.

She looked breathtaking.

But she knew something he'd known long before the first time he'd asked her out.

He didn't deserve her.

And that's why he was going with Mary. Mary was wearing a long red dress with long sleeves.

It's not that James didn't like Mary, it's just that he could never like her like he liked Lily. Lily was perfect, and Mary was a friend.

He sincerely hoped Mary felt the same way, or things could get very awkward tonight.

*********

Remus took one look at Lily and wanted to kill himself.

It wasn't that he didn't want to go with her tonight. Quite the opposite in fact. It was that he wanted to go with her too much. She was too beautiful for her own good.

And he wanted to kill himself for being such a horrible friend.

He sighed, faking a smile and walking over to Lily. Of course, the smile was only fake until he touched her, then he was grinning like an idiot no matter what.

He led her to the Great Hall, where the ball was being held, praying that Sirius didn't do anything stupid.

*********

"So, who're you going with Sirius?" James asked as they walked to the Great Hall, Mary clinging to James's arm.

"Peter," he said, grinning. Peter looked confused and a little scared for a moment before he realized that Sirius was kidding. **(AN: Haha, that was funny to write. **_**Sirius**_ **was kidding. Get it? Haha.)**

"No girl tonight?" Remus asked, Holding Lily's arm.

Sirius shook his head, still grinning. "Nah," he said. "I'm going stag." Then he grinned meaningfully at James.

"Ha ha," James said humorlessly. Sirius noticed him glance at Lily. She looked at him too, but a moment too late for their eyes to meet.

But Sirius didn't miss it. He grinned conspirationally.

*********

Lily decided this wasn't so bad. They were all together. It was like a big group thing. This would be okay.

So long as Remus didn't get any ideas about this being more than a group of friends.

Because seriously, what was I supposed to do if that happened? I already felt bad enough using the poor guy, I didn't want to reject him too!

Lily took a deep breath. This would be fine, she decided. It would.


	3. Lessons In Small Talk

This would be a disaster, Remus decided. It really would.

Not only had he seen Lily look at James and James look at Lily, but he had seen that Sirius had seen it too, and he could tell by his grin that he was planning something.

Oh crap.

This couldn't end well.

They'd only been in the Great Hall for a moment, but that was really the longest amount of time you could be in there and just stand there without doing anything.

Remus coughed lightly. "Um, Lily, would you like to dance?"

James glared at her, and Lily looked lost for a moment, before smiling and saying, "Of course."

He saw Mary drag a still angry looking James onto the dance floor and Sirius scanned the room for a girl who didn't have a date.

"So, um, Lily, how's life?" he asked uncomfortably.

"Is that how you make small talk?" she asked.

"Well, not usually," he admitted. "But at the moment that's the best I've got."

She laughed. "You don't know much about girls, do you?" she asked. He shook his head and she laughed again. "Alright," she said. "I'll help you. Compliment something."

"Um, your necklace is very pretty."

"And then I blush and say thank you," she told him. "And you ask me how I got it."

"How did you get it?" he asked, feeling rather foolish.

"It was my grandmother's," she said. "She gave it to my mother, who gave it to me. Petunia was incredibly angry the next month."

"Petunia?" he asked, but he knew the name sounded familiar.

"My sister," she clarified.

"Ah, of course," he said. Then there was a pause. "Now what?" he asked pleadingly.

"Say the first thing that comes to your mind. Keep it flowing. I said something about my sister, as me a question about her."

"Do you and your sister get along well?" he asked.

"Not since I got to Hogwarts," she said sadly. "She's a muggle, you see, and more or less hates anything to do with magic."

"And how do you feel about Hogwarts?" he asked.

"I love Hogwarts," she told him. "It's the most amazing place I've ever been."

"Me too," he said. "Uh…what's your favorite class?" he blurted out.

"Charms," she said without missing a beat.

"Oh really, why?" he asked her.

"I don't really know," she said. "It's just so fun."

"Uh-huh," he said.

"You did great!" she said enthusiastically. For a moment he forgot what she was talking about. "Now," she said. "Go try it on that Ravenclaw over there who's alone."

"W-what?" he asked, realizing he was losing control of the situation. He didn't want to go talk to a Ravenclaw girl!

Then he realized that he shouldn't want to stay here with the girl his best friend was in love with. So he went over to the girl willingly.

*********

"You should ask her to dance," Mary said conversationally.

"Excuse me?" James asked, confused.

"Lily," she said, as if it were obvious. "I can see that you don't want to dance with me," she told him.

"But I-" he started, but she cut him off.

"Listen, of course I want to dance with you, I mean, you're a great guy, but you obviously really like her, and I don't want to stand in the way of that."

"But you…" he said, then he stopped and began again. "Thank you," he said, smiling at her. "But honestly, I don't think she'd want to."

"Ask her," Mary said. "I think she'll surprise you."

James grinned and began to make his way over to Lily, but just then a very lost looking Peter stumbled over to her and they walked over to the dance floor together.

Aw crap.

*********

"I have to what?" Peter asked, shocked and confused at the task Sirius had just given him.

"Dance with Lily," Sirius said slowly. "So that you can find out why she wouldn't go with James when she clearly wanted to. And why she came with Remus."

"I-oh alright," he said, walking over to Lily.

"D-do you want to, uh, d-dance?" he asked nervously.

She laughed. "Why not?" she asked, standing and taking his had.

He was a horrible dancer. They both knew that, but she was nice enough not to say anything.

He opened his mouth to speak, but all that came out was a small squeaky noise.

"I'm not going to attack you," she said. "You can speak you know."

"I, uh, well I was, um, just wondering why you came with Remus?" he said carefully, posing the whole thing as a question.

"And not James?" she said, raising her eyebrows. He nodded sheepishly.

"I don't really want to talk about that," she said, not looking at him.

"Oh, I-I'm sorry," he said, looking at his feet.

"No, it's alright," she said, sighing. "It's just that I know you'll go back and tell them what I say."

"You're probably right about that," he said.

She laughed. "Sirius sent you to dance with me, didn't he?" she asked him. Again, he nodded sheepishly.

"Well, go tell him I'm not saying a thing."


	4. Tradition? Psh!

"Hello," Remus said to the shy looking Ravenclaw girl.

"Hi," she squeaked, blushing and looking down.

"Your bracelet is really pretty," he told her, referring to the tiny gold chain with little X's and O's hanging from it.

"Thank you," she said, smiling and blushing deeper but still not looking at him.

"Where did you get it?" he asked.

"My best friend gave it to me," she said, looking up at him. Remus sat down next to her.

"What's her name?" he asked.

"Her name's Lucy," the girl said. "She's a muggle."

"And what's your name?"

She was now a shade of maroon, but her smile increased every time he spoke to her.

"I'm Amy," she said.

"That's a beautiful name," he told her.

Her grin was now stretched from ear to ear. "Do you want to dance?" she asked.

Amazingly, he did. He was enjoying talking to Amy. "Of course," he said, taking her hand.

*********

Finally James was about to be able to ask Lily to dance.

He stood up from where he was sitting and started walking over to her. At that moment, Sirius came from nowhere and grabbed bother her hands, pulling her to the dance floor. She didn't look happy about it, but she went willingly enough.

James suddenly had a strong urge to murder his best friend.

*********

"What are you doing?" Lily asked Sirius.

"Dancing with you," he said matter-of-factly.

"Traditionally a guy asks a girl if she wants to dance with him," she said.

"Yes," he agreed. "Traditionally. But I don't like playing by the rules."

"You know, it was cruel of you to send Peter over here," she told him. "The poor boy acted like he thought I was going to bite his head off."

"You know something, Lily?" he asked.

"What?"

"You've danced with 75 percent of the marauders tonight," he told her. "And none of them have been the right one."

She rolled her eyes. "James hasn't asked me to dance."

"Aha!' he cried. She looked startled.

"What?" she asked.

"You just admitted that you would dance with James if he asked!" he explained triumphantly.

"I-I…" words seemed to fail her, and she hung her head sheepishly. "Yeah," she admitted. "I would."

"He wants to ask you, you know," he told her. "He wants to dance with you, but he thinks you'll say no."

"I know," she said miserably. "I kinda had that one coming, huh?"

Sirius shook his head. "Nah, if you didn't, you wouldn't be the Lily he loves."

"Loves?" she asked, her eyes wide.

"Uh, er, what I meant was…" Sirius trailed off, as Lily seemed to have gone into shock.

"I didn't mean to tell you that," he said. "Please don't-" But before he could finish, Lily had already run out of the Great Hall.


	5. I Scared Her Off

Lily knew it was stupid. She knew running out of the Great Hall was a bad move. She knew Sirius had probably meant nothing when he used the word love.

But what if he had?

She was scared.

What if he really loved her?

What if he really thought he loved her, but they went out and he realized that she was nothing special?

What if he really lover her, but she didn't love him back and she had to hurt him?

She could bear all the what ifs. So she would stay here in her bed.

And not move.

Ever.

Yeah, that could work.

Not.

*********

Finally! James though. Finally he could dance with Lily. She was done dancing with Sirius, and-what? What was she doing?

She was running out of the ball! What!? No! Why!?

"Sirius!" he bellowed. Sirius came running up looking sheepish.

"I think I scared her off," he said.

"What did you say?" I asked, prepared for the worst.

"Well, she said something about screwing it up, and I said if she didn't, she wouldn't be the Lily you loved." His voice had been getting quieter and quieter, until he said the word loved in nearly a whisper.

But James heard it just fine. "You said I loved her!?" he asked, his eyes wide and desperate.

Sirius nodded.

"Considering she doesn't even _like_ me, no wonder that freaked her out!"

"But she does!" Sirius argued. "She told me! She wanted you to ask her to dance! She feels bad about beaing mean to you all these years. Prongs, she likes you! A lot!"

"Not any more probably," James said miserably. At that moment, a petite blonde walked up to Sirius and asked him to dance. He was about to decline, but James nodded. He didn't want to spoil his friend's night.

Then he looked around. Peter was awkwardly trying to dance with a Hufflepuff sixth year, but they were both smiling. Remus was dancing with and talking animatedly to a seventh year girl from Ravenclaw. And Sirius looked happy enough dancing with the blonde girl James didn't recognize.

He sighed. Why did they all get to have a great night?


	6. Dancing In Hello Kitty Pajamas

James made a split second decision.

It wasn't really even a decision. He just…did it. Not even thinking, he just ran to the Gryffindor common room.

*********

Lily really didn't want to leave her room, but once she had on her muggle Hello Kitty pajama bottoms a purple tank top, she felt like sitting out in the common room, by the fire.

*********

James ran as quickly as he could, hoping she was in the common room and not in her dormitory, as he couldn't go into the girl's dormitory.

He ran faster than he'd ever flown on a broom, and that is definitely saying something.

*********

She sat there, staring into the fire. Sometimes she wished she could be a flame. So powerful, yet so beautiful and simple. It could help you or hurt you, both feared and loved by all.

Fire didn't have any what if's. except maybe, what if someone throws a bucket of water on me.

*********

James was out of breath when he reached the Gryffindor common room. He stood there for a moment, huffing and puffing. Then he straightened up, tried (unsuccessfully) to flatten his hair, and walked through the portrait hole to see Lily Evans sitting on a couch, staring into the fire.

*********

"Lily," he said.

"Huh?" she asked, startled. "Oh, um, hello James," she said, blushing and looking down.

"There was something I didn't get to say to you tonight," he said. "Or rather, to ask you."

"Yes?"

"Lily Evans," he said with a large bow, holding his hand out to her. "Would you do me the honor of dancing with me?"

She looked lost. "James, I…"

"Please?" he asked, his eyes begging her.

"Of course," she said, taking his hand.

And there they danced.

It was probably the longest dance in the history of Hogwarts, though if you asked wither of them they would tell you it was much too short.

As they danced they stared into each other's eyes. Neither smiled, and neither spoke, but neither attempted to break eye contact or move away.

They went well together. Never once did she stumble, and he didn't step on her foot. They were meant to be together.

At one point, students began to trickle in, and had they been paying attention, Lily and James would have realized that ball was over. But they were busy. Dancing.

Eventually, a small voice in both their heads told them the common room was, once again, empty. Lily smiled, and he smiled back at her.

Slowly, at the same time, they leaned forward. It seemed ages before their lips met.

When they pulled apart, Lily was looking quite smug, and James was grinning like an idiot.

"Wow," he said.

"I know," she agreed, nodding, as she sat down on the couch, pulling him down next to her.

"We should-" he began, but she cut him off.

"No, stay here," she told him. "I'm using you as a pillow."

And before she knew it, she was asleep.

And in the years to come, Lily would swear that was the best night's sleep she ever got.

*********

**Wow, I was originally writing that as a one-shot where Lily and Remus went to a dance and James got mad, but as I was writing it, I really wanted to know what happened!**

**Please review! My summer is boring, and reviews make my day!**


	7. Message To My Readers

**A MESSAGE TO MY READERS**

VERY IMPORTANT, PLEASE READ

Honey, I'm home! Yes, I'm at it again. For a while I had decided that I was going to focus on more productive writing, but you know what? Fanfiction is fun, and I miss it! So here I am, writing again.

I am, however, writing under a new pen name. My new account is Princess Corkey, and below you will find a list of stories that will be on that as well as a link.

* * *

New Profile: .net/u/3790840/Princess_Corkey

**Lost In Another Time**: This story was so much fun to write, and I reread it often for inspiration, but I recently realized how much I've grown as a writer since then, and it makes me wish I could rewrite it, and I realized, why don't I? So here it is, the remastering of Lost, now called **Her Name Was Alexandra**. Three chapters are already up. Not much different yet, but I am hoping to add to it. I want to explore the Lily/James relationship in it a little further, as well as add a few more supporting characters and straighten out the timeline. Suggestions? Love 'em! Link: .net/s/8151596/1/Her_Name_Was_Alexandra

**My Other Half: **MOH will be remastered much the same as Lost, under the name **The Other Half**. I would like Allyson to have a few personality changes, making her less unpredictable so to convey that she is more vulnerably than I initially showed. Also, I would like this story to be a little longer and completely change the last chapter for I look back and feel it is a terrible ending.

**Kiss Me In The Rain, Fallen Angel, Look Into The Future, Delusions of Grandeur, **: Existing chapters will remain mostly the same, possible minor tweaking, but the story will be reposted and continued on the new account.

**Tension, Uncomfortable, A Forgotten Story**: Will be tweaked slightly for typos, but otherwise will remain the same and simply reposted on the new account.

**Never Alone, Meet The Family, All's Fair in Love and Friendship, Katie Bell: Socially Inept: **Existing chapters will be rewritten and then story will be continued on the new account. **(All's fair will be shortened to simply that. I don't like longer titles for most stories.)**

**My Star Chaser (To become simply Star Chaser), Not My Night, and Cinderella Masquerade, Lily Potter: Daughter, Sister, and Disappointment (To become Lily Potter: Disappointment)**: Possibly rewritten, but lower on the priority list. Saving for a rainy day or once all above projects are completed.


End file.
